The botched ‘hit’ which spilt over so horrifically into what should have been the sanctuary of little Olivia’s home was not the first attempt on Joseph Nee’s life last summer.
Exactly two weeks earlier, it can now be revealed, Tommy Cashman is suspected of using the same Glock pistol in a bid to kill the convicted burglar.
The earlier murder bid – which, grotesquely, saw Nee targeted close to a primary school and children’s playground in the next street to Olivia’s house – mercifully caused no injuries.
Police at the time promised to ‘leave no stone unturned’ in the hunt for the gunman.
Today the ‘high level’ cannabis dealer Cashman, 34, was found guilty at Manchester Crown Court of the murder of the nine-year-old, who was shot in her home in Dovecot, Liverpool, last August.
Thomas Cashman (pictured), 34, was found guilty of being the gunman who fatally shot Olivia Pratt-Korbel
The intended victim of the shooting that killed nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel was convicted burglar Joseph Nee (pictured)
Nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel (pictured) died after being shot at her house in Dovecot, Liverpool, in August last year
But illustrating the pervasive evil of gun crime in our cities, both Cashman – convicted of being the shooter – and the deadly weapon were able to melt back into the local neighbourhood.
Despite outrage at the ‘recklessness’ of the earlier shooting, Cashman was able to launch a further attempt on Nee’s life – this one tragically ending in Olivia’s murder instead.
While Liverpool has its fair share of convicted drug dealers and armed robbers implicated in gun crime, Cashman has no known links to armed gangs.
Liverpool ‘born and bred’, he grew up just a 15-minute walk from Olivia’s house on a terrace of council housing with his parents, Stephen – a meat porter – and Angela.
Giving evidence, Cashman said he left school when he was 13 or 14, finding work delivering newspapers and washing cars before getting a job on fairgrounds in Wales.
By the age of 16 or 17 he was smoking cannabis on a daily basis, he said, making selling it a natural progression.
He met his future partner – Kayleeane Sweeney, also now 34 – when they were barely out of primary school, and they were still teenagers when she became pregnant.
Cashman told the jury he tried to ‘change my life around’ and stop dealing drugs when he became a father, dabbling instead in selling cars.
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But by the time of the shooting he was earning up to £5,000-a-week selling ‘kilos’ of cannabis to contacts living around Finch Lane – the main road at the top of Olivia’s street.
His life of crime helped enable him and Ms Sweeney to afford to live in a £450,000 detached house on an upmarket development where neighbours drive Bentley and Teslas.
The couple – who have a son aged 14 and a four-year-old daughter – are understood to have been paying £2,000-a-month for the four-bed rented property from the end of 2021, with Ms Sweeney driving a Land Rover Discovery Sport.
In addition, they were renting a luxury two-bed apartment in block overlooking the River Mersey.
Giving evidence, Cashman said he earned as much as £250,000-a-year through his illicit trade – and insisted he was not ‘a bad person’ as he didn’t sell class A drugs.
Thomas Cashman’s girlfriend Kayleanne Sweeney seen leaving Manchester Crown Court following the verdict which found him guilty of murdering Olivia Pratt-Korbel
Thomas Cashman, pictured in a court sketch taken on March 21, was found guilty of fatally shooting Olivia while chasing convicted drug dealer Joseph Nee
Cashman was also found guilty of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm to Olivia’s mother Cheryl Korbel (pictured arriving at court earlier this month). She escaped with injuries
A general view of Kingsheath Avenue, Liverpool, where Olivia Pratt-Korbal was shot dead in her home last August
He said the money was spent on cars, bikes and holidays.
Asked in court whether Ms Sweeney knew the source of his extraordinary wealth – more than seven times the average salary for the area – Cashman replied: ‘She never asked me, I never told her.’
However he admitted she and her parents would have had ‘suspicions’ that he was a drug dealer.
At the time of the shooting, Ms Sweeney had her own cosmetics clinic, however the business was dissolved just days before Cashman was charged with murder.
Speaking so softly he had to be asked repeatedly to keep his voice up, Cashman insisted it was a ‘boring’ existence, describing himself as stuck ‘in a rut’ at the time of the shooting.
Exactly what prompted his ‘relentless’ bid to kill Nee – and who supplied the firearms – are questions which detectives are still trying to answer.
